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Benton is now back from the hospital and doing very well.
He's still on a continuous drip feed but we are aggressively
trying to get him back to bolus before the first day of school
(May 12). Below are a few photos taken of Benton during
one of his several happy moments on Saturday.

Benton waiting for his bath water to get nice and hot!


Benton and Daddy enjoying some play time...



And here's a short video clip of Benton trying to stand.
He still has a long way to go, but he's showing promise!

Benton at Children's

We wanted to give you a quick update on the status of Benton.

As most of you know, Benton was admitted to Seattle Children's Hospital on Friday after a routine Endoscopy procedure. The procedure looked at his GI area for a cause of his recent weight loss and vomiting. btw - Benton is less than .9% of ideal weight for his age height.

Benton bored at the hospital...


The Endoscopy on Friday showed some very small cyst-like nodules in the stomach and duodenum. If you look closely at these two photos, you should see a pattern of small bumps that are not supposed to be there.




Immediately after the procedure, the doctor came out and said they were pretty sure the bumps were caused by H. Palori (bacterium that inhabits various areas of the stomach). However, the next day the pathology lab produced negative results for H. Palori.

We are on day three in the hospital and Benton is stable after getting nutrients and fluids through an IV and small amounts of formula through his G-Tube. The immediate plan is to slowly increase the dose of the formula until he's off the IV completely. This process won't be complete until early Tuesday AM at the earliest.

In the next day or so we'll hopefully have more discussions with our pediatrician and possibly more testing to find the root cause of his nausea and vomiting.

Here you can see the various fluids going into all the holes in Benton
I labeled each line...



On other fronts, here is a quick shot of the garage construction. A crew will return this week to complete the drywall and paint the interior of the garage. We may even get the new garage door installed. After that they'll have to reconstruct the storage units, install lights, and fix other problems they created along the way.

More Playtime

Benton has been sick for awhile and not in the mood
for the camera, so we went back to last month's photos
and videos archive and pulled up some goodies! These
were all shot in March.

We begin with recent interaction with his Sock Monkey-
in-the-Box from Aunt Deeky. Intro, taste, attack!








Next is a short video of some standing therapy. We used
to do this on an exercise ball, but now Benton is big enough
to attempt it on an ottoman.




We finish with a great video of Benton trying to sit up on
his own. Watch how he attempts to correct himself when
he starts to wobble. Go, B! Nurse Shelia cheers him on in
the background.

Status Quo for Benton

Many of you know Benton has been in a "funk" lately. For at least
the past few weeks, he's had very rough mornings, during which he
looks just miserable. Typically, the only way for him to feel better
is to throw up. Almost like clockwork, he does so at around 12p.
We've tried to describe this to you all, but today Dad caught it on film.
(Beware...if you have a weak stomach, you may want to skip this
video.) So sad. We just wish we could make it all better for B. :-(



Then, at about 3p each day, Benton changes almost instantly into a
happy, playful little boy. Here he is this afternoon enjoying an
unseasonably warm day as he uses his walker for the first time outdoors.
Come on, Dad, catch up with me!



Here's Benton this evening trying to drink like a big boy out of a small
glass. Nurse Shelia is helping.